The Syntax Error That Launched A Thousand Ships
by GoesKaboom
Summary: Sorta-sequel to Deck the Grid. CLU's flaky subordinate decides that he and Sam aren't moving their relationship along enough, and tries to upgrade Sam. The code had errors, however, so now every program on the Grid wants to get into Sam's pants!
1. Chapter 1

The Syntax Error That Launched A Thousand Ships

**Warnings/Notes: Dubious consent, possibly closer to non-con, mind control, bad computer jokes (sometimes all at the same time!). Technically a sequel to Deck the Grid, although most likely, one could read this separately without missing much other than a few references to the plot of that story that are not really integral to this one. **

**Disclaimer: Me? A multibillion dollar corporation? That's kinda hilarious. And flattering. But no, I'm not Disney. **

Chapter One

Work Text:

Jarvis had seen plenty of disturbing things in his time- he'd once accidentally walked in on Gem and Zuse interfacing (and he could have gone the rest of his life without knowing what Zuse looked like sans suit), he'd interrupted Rinzler in the shower on another occasion, and there were too many incidents involving Perl, the quite possibly certifiable Blackguard. That program was like a walking package of disturbing, and Jarvis _highly_ doubted that anyone on the Grid would forget her attempt to introduce the User holiday of Christmas to the programs.

Actually, now that he thought about it, the vast majority of the disturbing things he'd come across in recent memory were connected in some way to that particular program. So you'd have to forgive him for being overly cautious when it came to Perl. And in his experience, a happy Perl was worse by an exponential amount than a pissed-off Perl. And lately, said program had been walking around like she owned the Grid, with a big goofy grin on her face. Not only was Perl in an alarmingly good mood, but Gem had been spending a lot of time around her, and the mood was rubbing off on her, it seemed. Normally a happy Siren was a _good _thing, but now, Jarvis wasn't so sure, especially now that he'd seen the two female programs together several times, always with their heads together, as though they were plotting something. And to make things even more suspicious, Perl always seemed to have what looked suspiciously like a code editor with her. Now that was a terrifying thought- Perl programming things.

Speak of the devil... Jarvis noticed that the two programs that had been plaguing his thoughts recently sitting together at a table outside of an energy cafe. They were both absorbed in whatever it was they were doing. A plan started to form in Jarvis' head. If only he could find out what they were up to...

* * *

><p>"He's watching us again," Gem stated flatly. She didn't even have to elaborate for the other woman to know who she meant. Perl snorted.<p>

"What's he going to do, try to derezz me?Please, he doesn't even know what we're doing anyway- for all he knows we could be discussing e-books. Besides, I'd like to see him try. There's a reason he's not a Blackguard and I am," she answered arrogantly. Gem just shook her head, suppressing a laugh at her friend's overconfidence.

"Are you ever going to tell me exactly what this 'upgrade' of yours is going to do?" she asked. "I got the specifications of the User's identity disc like you asked me to, but I still don't know what your intentions are. You're not trying... to derezz him, are you?" A look of horror passed over the Siren's face. She might not be as superstitious as some programs, but she was certain that purposefully harming a User would have some very bad consequences.

Perl, to her credit, looked affronted. "Of course it's not going to hurt him! Besides, CLU _would_ derezz me if that was the case. No, I'm just trying to help him out! Sam Flynn and the Programmer haven't gotten anywhere in their relationship since Christmas! No, all I'm going to do is tweak his code a little bit and make it so he becomes desperate to interface with CLU, and the only way to alleviate that pain is for them to bring each other to overload!"

"Are you sure that CLU will be alright with this?" Gem, unsurprisingly, was skeptical. Perl, however, had been expecting that response, and already had a refutation ready.

"A few millicycles ago he complained to me that Sam Flynn was being so reticent. I'm sure he won't mind me giving him a little help! If the User won't respond, then I'll just _make _the User respond. And besides, I'm the one with the hours of vid-files from the Internet watched- I know what I'm doing!"

Privately, Gem thought the other program's plan had "BAD IDEA" written all over it. Wasn't it generally frowned upon to mess with someone's code so that they would interface whether they wanted to or not? Although Perl had always marched to the beat of a different syntax, and truthfully, Gem kind of doubted that the Programmer cared all that much about the social mores of the Grid, at least where he himself was concerned. But the Siren knew her friend well enough to know that trying to reason with her on this issue would be like trying to discuss User politics with a bit. Instead, she tried what she thought was a sneakier tactic to make the other woman think about her motivations.

"What do you expect to gain from this? Because even if your plan does work, what good would it possibly do for you?"

"Oh, Gem, you've been around Zuse too long! Who says I need to get anything out of doing something nice for someone? Unlike some programs I could mention, I am perfectly capable of being friendly and helpful!" came the affronted reply, and not-too-subtle jab at Zuse. Then, slowly, a familiar smirk crept over Perl's face. "And besides, maybe If get to watch them bring each other to overload, I can finally unravel the mysteries of User systems! Mark my words, Gem, I _will_find his circuits if it's the last thing I do! I don't want to regret anything when I derezz, and right now, that's the only thing I want to know! I'd never forgive myself if I die and don't know how they work!"

Gem resisted the urge to facepalm. So _that_was Perl's motivation. Figured.

The two sat in silence for a while, Perl tapping away at her coding device, making odd faces while she worked. It was really quite amusing, the Siren thought, watching her friend work. Somehow, she felt that she should stop the other woman, but Gem wasn't stupid. Friend or not, Perl tended to regard anyone and anything that got in her way as a threat. And threats were to be annihilated. It was easy to forget that behind the nutty behavior and amiable personality, Perl was a highly-trained Enforcer, and that it wouldn't be hard for her to completely obliterate this entire sector of the Grid if she felt like it.

Subconsciously, Gem shuddered. She knew Perl was really quite deranged, but it was so much easier to think of her as affably evil rather than a killing machine like Rinzler. It probably helped that Perl seemed a lot more autonomous than Rinzler did. But it would be foolish to underestimate her.

"Are you alright?" Perl asked, jolting the other program out of her thoughts. "You just shivered- did you have enough energy today? You know it's not good if you don't consume enough."

"O-oh yes. Yes, I'm fine. Just thinking too much, I suppose." Gem replied. Perl nodded sagely.

"It's OK. Sometimes when I sit still for too long I'll remember the time I saw Yotta trying to seduce Rinzer. Eurgh, I get the shudders just thinking about it!" Perl actually did look quite revolted, circuits flashing a sickly green color. But almost immediately, she bounced back. "That's right! I finished it! As soon as I activate it , Sam Flynn will be overwhelmingly attracted to the Programmer! It's perfect!"

"Don't you think you should double-check your coding first?" Ge masked. "Maybe you should have someone else look over it before you deploy it, just to make sure everything works the way it's supposed to?"

"NO!" Perl exclaimed. "My code! Mine!"

"OK, OK, calm down, it was just a suggestion!" Gem said, holding her hands up in the universal gesture of "please don't attack me." "I just thought it might help!"

"So you don't think my coding skills are good enough, is that it?" Perl asked dangerously, hand drifting perilously close to her disc. Gem started. She wouldn't actually... would she? Over something as stupid as this?

"Of course I don't doubt your coding skills," Gem replied. "It's just that even the best programmers can make mistakes sometimes, even our leader. Remember the time CLU accidentally reprogrammed all those bits to swarm anyone who got too close to them?" Immediately, the tension was broken, and Perl busted out laughing.

"Oh, damn, I'd forgotten about that! Remember when they chased Jarvis all the way to the Sea of Simulation? That was hilarious!" she snickered, remembering the horde of angry bits wreaking havoc on CLU's personal assistant. She wished she'd been able to get some vid-files of that that- it was classic! But she shrugged it off- it wasn't like she was messing with a bunch of already volatile bits! "Don't worry, I know I did it right," she said. "How would I screw up something this important?"

_Very easily_, Gem thought silently, but didn't trust herself to say aloud. Perl took her friend's silence as acquiescence and grinned.

"LET'S DO THIS THING!" she shouted, pressing a button on her device.

For a moment, nothing happened, with Perl waiting expectantly for the message on her screen that would let her know the operation had been successful, while Gem waited silently for the inevitable error message, that the operation had failed. She wasn't going to say "I told you so," but it was a very tempting thought.

And then, there was as loud cracking sound, the screen of Perl's code editor going dark, with smoke coming out of the openings. Then, both programs watched in horror as all around the Grid, male program's circuits flashed pink and purple, before they shut off completely, programs crumpling to the ground it heaps.

"Holy shit!" Gem swore. "Perl, what did you-" she cut herself off abruptly when she realized that the other program had taken off running in the opposite direction. "GET BACK HERE- THIS IS YOUR FAULT! You can't just leave them like this!"

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings: Dubious consent, probably closer to non-con, original characters, explicit content**

Chapter Two

As much as it irked him to still be imprisoned on the Grid, at least Sam could say that he wasn't being constantly stalked anymore. Occasionally CLU would send for him, to try to bring their relationship to the next level (Sam always refused, of course), and once in a while Rinzler would want to spar with him. But overall, he was more or less left alone. And to sweeten the deal, that loony program Perl had been pulled off guard duty in order to attend to some other matters. So now Sam didn't have to live in constant fear of being groped in his sleep by the crazy Blackguard.

She had, however, been replaced with new guards. Apparently CLU didn't trust him enough to leave him to his own devices, and so Perl's place had been taken by two other programs, a male and a female. Mie, the female, was the closest thing Sam had had in years to a mother (despite the fact that she appeared to be in her early twenties), always bringing him some energy she had prepared and going out of her way to make his cell relatively comfortable. Xeta, the male, would often engage Sam in conversation, wanting to know more about the User world. He also occasionally gave Sam tips on how to survive in the Grid.

Sure, they were both his captors and they both glowed with the orange-red circuits of programs corrupted by CLU, but they hadn't done anything in particular to harm him- quite the opposite, in fact- and Sam couldn't help but be rather fond of them, as far as one could be fond of their jailor. So when the "incident," as he had taken to calling it happened, he was horrified. Sam had been resting- not really sleeping, as he'd found that on the Grid, he didn't need to sleep as much as he would in the User world- more like recharging his energy- when a high-pitched scream snapped him to attention. He ran to the edge of his cell, peering out through the bars of light that contained him, only to see Mie sobbing over a crumpled heap of what he realized belatedly was Xeta. The program's circuits had gone dark, and he'd collapsed in on himself, much to the horror of his mate.

"N-no," she sobbed, clinging to her husband's body. "He- he was fine a few microcycles ago! Xeta- Xeta! No! Please, no, please-" she babbled, hardly making any sense at all. Sam cleared his throat, hoping to get the inconsolable program's attention.

It worked. Mie stopped crying, although her eyes still shone with unshed tears, as she turned to Sam. "Maybe _you_ can save him!" she exclaimed, hope leeching back into her voice.

"Me?" Sam asked. The program nodded.

"Yes, you! You're a _User_," she said, as though she was trying to explain it to a bit. "You can do things that normal programs can't! I used to just be a spreadsheet program, I can't access Xeta's files. But you- you could technically access our files at any time, as long as you were touching our discs! You see?" Mie continued. "Xeta's not derezzing, he hasn't disintegrated yet. All this means is that his coding got corrupted somehow! You can pull up an earlier version and bring him back!"

Sam froze. Yes, he knew that Users had different abilities on the Grid than programs did, but he was afraid to try to use them. For one thing, he didn't want to die- he didn't really think his father's evil doppelganger would appreciate him mucking around with "his" programs. Attempts to force him into a non-filial relationship or not, there was no doubt in the young man's mind that CLU would not hesitate to kill him if he started to fear that he was going to escape or usurp his power or something. Secondly, Sam knew that he had different abilities, but he didn't know exactly what they were or how to use them. Even if he did try to help Xeta, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't end up making things worse. What if he failed, and really did end up killing the program?

He looked back at Mie, who was watching him hopefully. Sam sighed. This probably fell under the heading of "aiding and abetting the enemy," but fuck it. Mie and Xeta had never done anything to harm him personally, and as far as he was concerned, that made them alright. "I can't do anything if Xeta is out there and I'm in here," Sam pointed out. Mie's face dropped.

"Oh… I didn't even think about that," she said quietly. "I'm not supposed to let you out without the proper authorization…"

But the program surprised the User by walking over to the control panel and inputting a code. The bars of light that separated Sam's cell from the rest of the Grid deactivated, and Mie stepped back, smiling weakly.

"This is probably the stupidest thing I've ever done… well, get on with it, if you're going to derezz me and make a break for it, now's your chance."

Instead, Sam cautiously approached the deactivated body of Xeta, kneeling down next to him. He reached out a hand cautiously, barely even touching the program. He looked over to the still-active program, and asked, "you said you thought his code had become corrupted?"

"Yes, that's the only thing I could think of that would make someone shut down like that-" Mie began. She would have gone on, but a horrible grinding noise, like a damaged hard drive trying to restart, interrupted her. Both User and program watched as Xeta's circuits lit back up again, and the program got to his feet. But there was something wrong. Xeta's face had rearranged itself into a hard, cold expression, and instead of flashing orange and red, the program's circuits were glowing a violent violet color. Sam stared, having never seen a program with purple circuits before. Mie, however, had clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

"Sam Flynn…" she whispered. "What the hell did you do?"

"I don't understand," Sam replid. "I didn't do anything!" Mie shuddered, looking at her husband as though seeing him for the first time.

"You know how different programs have different colored circuits to show their function?" she asked. Sam nodded hesitantly. "Well, our circuit colors can change according to our emotions as well. Usually it shows through the brightness, but the color can change completely as well. If one of us get a virus or otherwise feels sick, sometimes our circuits turn green. If we get depressed, sometimes they gray out. But pink and purple…" her voice trailed off. "I don't really know how to explain it in a way that a User could understand… I don't know how things work in your world- do you even interface?"

"What?" Sam asked, only half-listening. He was too busy keeping an wary eye on Xeta, who in turn was keeping an eye on him. Although the expression on the program's face was more "hungry" and less "wary."

"Of course you wouldn't," the woman said distractedly. "When programs… care for each other very much, and want to show the other how much they care for them, they'll interface. The whole point is to bring the other one to… well, to pleasurable overload." Mie looked very embarassed at having to explain such a thing. "Pink and purple circuits usually mean that a program is… wishing to interface."

Sam stared at the female program for a moment, comprehension dawning. "You mean he's sexually aroused?" he finally yelped. Mie nodded.

"Yes, but I do not understand why," she replied. "Maybe it's a new kind of virus?"

"Mie…" Xeta finally spoke. His voice was harsher than normal, with an edge to it that hadn't been there before he collapsed. "Why is the User Sam Flynn not in the cell?"

"I… I was talking to him, that is all," Mie replied hestiantly. "He was not trying to escape, nor was I helping him to do so." This wasn't her husband- Xeta never spoke so sharply to her like that. He never spoke so sharply to _anyone_ like that. Well, maybe Jarvis- that program tended to get under his circuits like no one else could, but still. And he never looked at anyone with the intense distrust that he was showing now. Something was _seriously_ wrong.

"I will put the User Sam Flynn back in the cell and reactivate the bars myself. You will go home and wait for me there." Xeta continued blandly. Mie blinked.

"But I am still on duty…?" she replied, more in the form of a question than a statement of fact. Xeta nodded.

"You will return home and wait for me there," he repeated. "I will make your excuses to the Programmer should the need arise." Sam looked over at Mie, who was looking truly terrified by this point. "This is not negotiable, Mie. You will do as I say. You have already violated protocol by allowing the User Sam Flynn out of his cell. I am attempting to rectify your error in a way that will quite possibly save your life. Go now." With one last meaningful look at Sam, Mie appeared to comply, turning and hurrying out of the cell block. Xeta picked Sam up bridal-style, as though he were weightless, and carried him into the cell before dumping him unceremoniously on the cot Sam used as bed. Tapping away on a portable data entry screen, Xeta called the cell bars back into existence… while he was still in the cell as well. Alarm bells started going off in Sam's head, especially as the program's circuits seemed to pulse ever brighter. Mie's explanation rang in his ears. He didn't want to believe it, that the program's apparent arousal was directed at _him_. He watched the program, waiting for something to happen, to happen, just so he could react accordingly.

Xeta realized that Sam was watching him, and he smirked to himself. How convenient it was, that his wife had already gone to the trouble of explaining interfacing to the User. At the moment, the most pressing concern he had was his desperation to interface with the User, force him to overload and make him scream his name. He didn't want to waste time explaining the bits and the Gridbugs, not when they could be interfacing.

"Maybe it was a good thing Mie let you out, I had an excuse to get you right where I wanted you," the program mused, advancing on Sam, pieces of his suit derezzing. Sam's brain started screaming at him to do something, anything- and with great difficulty, he finally forced himself to make a break for it. Xeta, however, was faster. Before the User had time to react, strong, flexible tendrils of light emerged from the cot and captured Sam's wrists and ankles, holding him open in a very compromising position. "You look good like this. Why didn't I do this cycles ago?" Xeta asked aloud, leering down at Sam. He touched a gloved hand to the chest of Sam's suit, derezzing the tight material and exposing the soft skin underneath. Sam squirmed, trying in vain to cover himself. The program just laughed at him, and Sam realized that every time he moved, he was causing more and more of the suit to derezz, and in places much more compromising than just the chest. Immediately, he stopped the squirming, which caused the program to scowl.

"No, no, keep going, I was enjoying the show!"

"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked, trying to keep his voice calm. "You and Mie- I thought you were together! Won't this upset her?" he tried, going along the lines of a User relationship, hoping to knock some sense into Xeta's head. Truth be told, however, he didn't know the first thing about program relationships- were they even monogamous? Would Mie actually care if her husband slept with someone else?

"What Mie doesn't know won't hurt her," Xeta dismissed. "Besides, I'll let her have a turn once I'm done with you. I doubt she would mind if I took this chance to interface with a User. Waa, your skin is so soft!" he abruptly exclaimed, running his hands over Sam's exposed chest. "And your circuits disappear once you take off your suit. Fascinating." One of the program's fingers lightly brushed Sam's nipple, and the User breathed in sharply, something that Xeta did not fail to notice.

"Interesting," he mused. "It doesn't _look_ like a circuit, but from the reaction it looks like it feels good…" the program punctuated his remark by rolling the little pink bud in between two fingers. Involuntarily, Sam's back arched and he cried out, ashamed at his body's reaction to the touch. The grid-suit, or at least what was left of it, began to tighten around his crotch.

"S-stop," he pleaded. Xeta, to his credit, did freeze for a moment, a look of curiosity on his face. It really was disconcerting, Sam thought.

"But why?" he asked earnestly. "It looks like you feel good." He palmed Sam's crotch at the same time, elicting a whimper from the User. "And it sounds like you feel good too. Don't worry, I won't hurt you." A sudden thought crossed Xeta's processors. No way, was it really possible? If his hunch was true, then he was very honored to have been granted this opportunity.

"Is this your first time?" he asked. Sam gaped at him. Xeta took this assent and continued. "Overloading feels good, I promise! I never thought that Users wouldn't interface, no wonder you reacted the way you did! I'll be gentle, you have nothing to worry about! Mie's never had any complaints- I've never hurt her, and I won't hurt you!"

For what seemed like the hundredth time in a very short period, Sam's brain ground to a halt. The program was forcing himself on him, and yet, that same program thought Sam's objections to the situation were because he was a _virgin_? And to make things worse, technically, in a way, Xeta was correct. Other than some fooling around in college, Sam had never been really intimate with another man. He had never thought that he would find himself in a situation where he might be going "all the way" with another guy. But on the off-chance that it _did_ happen, he definitely didn't think it would happen inside a computer with a guy who wasn't even really a "guy" at all, if you wanted to get right down to the technical details. And he _definitely_ didn't think it would be non-consensual. Sam opened his mouth to give Xeta a piece of his mind, but instead, he blurted out something he'd never meant to say.

"I am not a virgin!"

Xeta's smile widened, although to Sam it looked more like he was baring his teeth. "Well then," he said, grinning deviously. "In that case, I won't need to be gentle." Passing his hand over the rest of Sam's body, he derezzed the last remnants of Sam's suit, leaving the User completely nude.

While Sam's brain was trying to restart itself, Xeta took advantage of his temporary compliance to resume his explorations of the other's body. The program started by kissing gently at Sam's neckline, then moving south to lick and suck at the User's nipples. He enjoyed feeling how the strange pink buds hardened undder his ministrations, and he marveled at how different Sam's body was from that of a program. While being intimate with another program, one could always feel the electrical charge building up between them, coaxing them closer to overload. That was absent with the User. Xeta also noticed that Sam's body was both harder _and_ softer than that of a program. Some of that Xeta attributed to gender differences- Sam was all flat planes and sharp angles- unlike female programs (and, Xeta suspected, female Users), who were curvier. Apparently the differences between male programs and male Users were minimal, although there were a few that stood out to Xeta especially. Sam didn't have circuits covering his body, he had those pink things on his chest, and he had a strange indentation on his stomach that the program couldn't figure out a possible use for. Sam obviously didn't have breasts, or the curvier hips that female programs had, but he quite clearly had a male member (a rather large one, at that, Xeta noted with some jealously). But he was just so much _softer_ than any program Xeta had ever interfaced with (not that he'd interfaced with that many programs, Mie had been his first, and his only, at least until he'd once gotten drunk and rebooted lying next to Zuse- that had been a traumatic experience, to say the least). His skin was so velvety, Xeta just wanted to rub his face up and down the User's body.

Sam made a soft keening sound, distracting the program from his thought processes. Xeta looked down to realize he actually _had_ been rubbing his face over the User's lower abdomen." A quick glance just a few micrometers downward revealed that at least one part of Sam was enjoying the attention. He laughed softly.

"See? It's not bad at all," he said, gently blowing over the tip of Sam's erection. Sam whimpered.

"Why are you doing this to me?" he asked, feeling pathetic. Xeta shrugged.

"Because I wanted to see what it was like to interface with you," he replied. Sam was about to say something in response, possibly to argue that it just wasn't logical to suddenly force yourself on someone just because you wanted to see what it was like, but then, all rational thought stopped.

Xeta had just taken his dick into his mouth.

Sam thrashed around as much as his bonds would allow him to, mind warring between the pleasure coming from having a mouth on his cock, and the knowledge that he'd never asked for this and that he was at the mercy of this unhinged, probably-dangerous program. Unfortunately for Sam, the part of his mind going "moremoremore this feels amazing" was easily overpowering what was left of his rational mind. Before too long, the User lost himself to the sensations, arching his hips up to go deeper into the program's mouth. The program, of course, welcomed it, feeling very pleased with himself that he'd managed to reduce the User, an almighty, powerful entity (at least to programs), to a pleasured, writhing mess. As far as Xeta was concerned, he might as well just have been chosen to be the leader of the whole goddamned Grid. He was going to fuck a User!

"Ah-aah, I'm… I'm coming!" Sam stammered out brokenly. Xeta had never heard that terminology before, but he thought it sounded like something good. So he kept up what he was doing, taking Sam's penis as deep into his throat as he could. With one final cry, Sam released, Xeta swallowing everything. He licked his lips at the odd taste. It wasn't unpleasant, exactly, but it was very different from anything he'd ever ingested before. Programs did not have bodily fluids to release- he supposed it must be a User-specific thing.

Sam went limp in his bonds, rationality finally catching up with him. He'd just been given a blowjob by a computer program. The thought was so ridiculous that he started laughing hysterically. This had to be some sort of insane dream. Maybe he'd fallen asleep and hadn't realized it yet. Or maybe he had derezzed and this was Computer Hell.

Xeta stared at Sam, watching the User laugh maniacally. Was it normal for Users to act like that after overload? He waited patiently for Sam's laughter to stop, then when Sam's mirth died down, approached him again, placing a gentle hand on his nude chest.

"Are you alright?" he asked, genuine concern coloring his tone. Of course, that only set Sam off again, giggling hysterically. Of course he wasn't alright, a computer program had just molested him! What about that situation was "alright?"

Xeta rolled his eyes. OK, so after overload Users went kind of crazy. Good to know for future reference. "If you're done, maybe we can move on to the next part?" he asked, a hint of irritation seeping into his voice. The User had overloaded, but he hadn't. And that wasn't very fair, now, was it? All of a sudden, however, his circuits shut off again and collapsed onto the floor of the cell. Sam looked out to see Mie standing there, a shell-shocked expression on her face and a code editor in her hand.

"Oh Users…" she breathed. "What have I done?"

"Is he… is he dead?" Sam asked. The female program shook her head.

"I used the emergency TERM command. We all have one, in case something goes wrong and we need to be shut down before we damage ourselves, someone else, or the Grid. It's rarely used, though- usually we just get derezzed," she explained. "He will… he will eventually reboot, but he will be so angry with me…" Mie sighed. "But never mind that, you have to get out of here!" She hurried over and unlocked Sam's restraints, circuits dimming in embarassment when it finally occurred to her that Sam was completely naked.

"Here," she said, shoving a bundle of black cloth into the User's arms. "Wear that, you will need to get out of here as fast as you can. I don't know what happened but it looks like Xeta wasn't the only one affected. You are in danger, Sam Flynn, you will need to hide until whatever this is passes. Go to End of Line club- Zuse might know what do about it." Sam stared at her.

"You're… you're seriously letting me go?" he asked. "You're not worried I'll try to topple your government or derezz you or something?" Mie snorted.

"We are already on the brink of collapse as it is- most of the Grid is infected with some kind of virus. I can feel it taking ahold of me, too- it's only a matter of time before I fall as well. I doubt letting you loose will make much of a difference one way or another." She cast a quick glance at her crashed husband, and sighed softly. "Just go, please," she begged. "Before he wakes up, and before I do the same thing to you that he did."

Sam nodded, deciding to take the program's advice. "You said I should go to the End of Line Club? Zuse will really know what to do?"

"Yes," Mie said. "He's one of the most intelligent programs on the Grid, if anyone would be able to help you, it would be him."

With one final glance backwards, Sam clothed himself in the black garment and hurried out of the cell block, towards what he hoped was freedom. If Mie was right, and Zuse actually knew what was going on, and was willing to help him, he might finally be able to get off of the Grid and return to the User world!

Mie watched the User scurry off out into the Grid. She hoped against hope that her suspicion that Zuse could help was correct and that her _other_ suspicion, the one as to what caused this whole debacle, was wrong. For Sam's sake, she hoped it wasn't _him specifically_ that had gotten at least half of the Grid aroused.

TBC

Ow. I think I have carpal tunnel now…


End file.
